Working For Less, Or Not Working: Illinois Job Gains Weak
From Crain's Chicago Business
Illinois unemployment was down to 7.5 percent in May, but Cook County and Illinois in general continue to lag the nation in job growth and wages, according to a comprehensive census report.
Based on preliminary data, the state's unemployment rate dropped from 7.9 percent in April, the third consecutive monthly decline and the lowest it's been since November 2008, the Illinois Department of Employment Security announced today.
But a new census report also released today said that Cook County gained only 27,500 jobs, an increase of 1.1 percent, between December 2012 and December 2013, which was the smallest increase among the 10 largest counties.
By comparison, statewide employment was up 1.0 percent during that time and jobs grew 1.8 percent nationwide.
Unlike other federal jobs data based on monthly surveys of selected workplaces or partial unemployment insurance records, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages is a benchmark report covering all employers at the county level.
Illinois also had two counties with the biggest job losses in percentage terms last year. Downstate St. Clair County lost 3.1 percent of its jobs and Peoria County lost 2.2 percent, tied with a county in New York for the second-worst job loss in the nation.
Last year, Peoria's Caterpillar Inc. was retrenching amid a global mining slump, forcing thousands of layoffs at home and elsewhere, while St. Clair County saw completion of construction of the massive Prairie State Energy Campus, which includes a coal mine and a coal-fired power plant.
Those counties' job losses “wouldn't be anything structural,” an IDES spokesman said.
Read more in our daily News Update...
From Crain's Chicago Business
Illinois unemployment was down to 7.5 percent in May, but Cook County and Illinois in general continue to lag the nation in job growth and wages, according to a comprehensive census report.
Based on preliminary data, the state's unemployment rate dropped from 7.9 percent in April, the third consecutive monthly decline and the lowest it's been since November 2008, the Illinois Department of Employment Security announced today.
But a new census report also released today said that Cook County gained only 27,500 jobs, an increase of 1.1 percent, between December 2012 and December 2013, which was the smallest increase among the 10 largest counties.
By comparison, statewide employment was up 1.0 percent during that time and jobs grew 1.8 percent nationwide.
Unlike other federal jobs data based on monthly surveys of selected workplaces or partial unemployment insurance records, the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages is a benchmark report covering all employers at the county level.
Illinois also had two counties with the biggest job losses in percentage terms last year. Downstate St. Clair County lost 3.1 percent of its jobs and Peoria County lost 2.2 percent, tied with a county in New York for the second-worst job loss in the nation.
Last year, Peoria's Caterpillar Inc. was retrenching amid a global mining slump, forcing thousands of layoffs at home and elsewhere, while St. Clair County saw completion of construction of the massive Prairie State Energy Campus, which includes a coal mine and a coal-fired power plant.
Those counties' job losses “wouldn't be anything structural,” an IDES spokesman said.
Read more in our daily News Update...